How Care Management, Care Coordination Differ in Health IT

The terms “care management” and “care coordination” are starting to take on slightly different flavors in the health IT world as software companies create new offerings for the growing value-based care marketplace, saysa new reportby Chilmark Research.

Healthcare organizations are exhibiting a growing appetite for patient management tools to support population health management and outcomes-based care strategies, while paying particular attention to systems that can help them avoid quality penalties, prevent unnecessary utilization, and stay within the financial bounds of bundled payment programs.

The strong emphasis on the reimbursement implications of value-based care arrangements is leading providers to invest in tools that take a more episodic approach to patient management instead of broader longitudinal care plans that encompass the entirety of a patient’s needs.

The most popular type of care management tools segment patient care into 30 or 90 day episodes, the report says, helping organizationsmanage financial risksin a concrete manner.

“The strategic vision of a broad focus on coordinating care has given way to a more tactical focus on managing care,” says the report.

The shift indicates that the industry is taking a closer look at how to define the differences between “care management” and “care coordination.”

“Care management occurs in the hospital, while care coordination takes place in myriad settings – including post-acute settings such as the inpatient rehabilitation facility, the skilled nursing facility (SNF), and the patient-centered medical home,” Chilmark explains.